E For All - The "Real" E3 (and here's why)
Written by Sullivan Smith
Published on 05/11/2007
Originally from Binary Culture / [the-lowdown.net]
http://www.binaryculture.net

The Electronic Entertainment Expo began years ago as a response aimed at the shabby treatment any video game company that wasn't called Nintendo received at the Consumer Electronics Show. As the show grew in size, it grew in legend as well amongst gamers. Before the internet really took off, and any nitwit with a website (us included) could get into the show if they were willing to register for a tax ID and travel to L.A., E3 was the unreachable Utopia for gamers; a three day giant arcade with press conference and industry party bookends, populated with game demos no one else in the world would get to play for months (sometimes even years).

And grow the show did, almost to the point that some of the big names in the industry were considering pulling out of it altogether. Escaping from its trade show origins and becoming more of a press spectacle, organizers of the show realized they had to scale back. Scale back they did; the E3 we all once knew is no more.

In its place is E3 Media & Business Expo, moving from the friendly confines of the Los Angeles Convention Center to god-knows-where in Santa Monica. An invitation-only event made to be pretty much as inaccessible as possible.

Despite having attended and covered E3 for the past five years (as both Binary Culture and The-Lowdown.net), the ESA and their partners did not see fit to provide us with an invitation to the event this year (not that spending three days in Santa Monica is a pleasant thought). We will still be covering the event as best we can, with the same irreverence you've come to expect from Binary Culture.

Luckily we haven't lost all hope.

E3 used to bring in millions of dollars in revenue every year to the city of Los Angeles, so much so that plans were being put into motion to expand the convention center, built heavily around the business that the expo brought. The ESA pretty much pulled the rug out from under them but scaling down the show and then moving it.

(Before I go on, I just want to note that if I sound bitter towards the ESA, it's not entirely serious. Obviously we're a little peeved that we didn't get an invite to the Summit, but we can honestly say we understand, from a business point of view, why they changed the expo the way they did).

IDG World Expo to the resue.

IDG is the company that promotes MacWorld, the convention revolving around the Apple Company that, since the release of the iPod, has become nearly as aniticipated as E3, as well as runs GamePro Magazine. This year, IDG is filling in the void (with the ESA's blessing and endorsement) that E3 left at the LA Convention Center this October.

The best part? You're invited. You can get the actual details at eforallexpo.com, but the fact remains: E For All is essentially E3 that anyone can buy a ticket to get to.

Obviously, it's going to be a little different. There's going to be plenty of fanfare, and big name companies such as Nintendo, Namco and Konami have already announced participation (with hopefully Sony and Microsoft on the way). But the tradeshow feeling from the previous years will probably not be there.

You know what? That's OK.

After years of being unobtainable and mythological, it's time for the fans - the gamers - to have an E3 sized show of their own. Let the big name press and the industry bigwigs cluster together in the rat hole that is Santa Monica and make their big announcements. Frankly, if the press conferences at this year's E3 are going to be anything like last year's (I'm looking at YOU, Sony), then frankly I'm more than happy to stay home.

I want to play the games and meet the people who make the games. I want to meet the people who play the games. That's what Binary Culture is all about anyone - Games, the people who play them and the people who make them.

Every year around E3 time, major news outlets would cover not only the announcements made at E3 but also the spectacle. The thing was fucking huge. Take it from someone who's been there for many years - the thing is as big and noisy and flashy as you think. More so maybe. That was important to the video game industry - to get massive amounts of attention from the press and the masses that didn't involve Jack Thompson or some other idiot legislator only interested in making a name for themselves.

Video games still need that kind of attention. With E3 shutting itself off in some beachside California town, it doesn't matter what kind of announcements are made. Sony can come out and say they're giving away one million free PS3s - the press will cover it, but it'll be coverage for Sony, not the video game industry.

The big, ridiculous overblown video game expo has been in the hands of the elite for too long. It's time to let the gamers have it for a while. And Binary Culture will be proud to cover it for those of you who can't make it - not because you're being shut out of it - this time it's only because you can't get there.

Although you really should come.